Joe Biden Misstates Troop Size in Afghanistan

CONCORD, N.H. – While railing against Mitt Romney’s comment about the 47 percent of voters who consider themselves to be “victims,” Vice President Joe Biden misstated the number of U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan by several hundred thousand Friday evening.

“By the way, those dependent people he refers to, those 47 percent, they include the 650,000 troops still left in Afghanistan who, because they are in combat, being shot at, injured, they do not have to pay any federal income tax on their salary. I don’t call that dependency. I call that ingratitude to not recognize they are a part of that 47 percent,” Biden said on the steps of the state house in Concord, N.H.

Following the event, a Biden aide clarified Biden intended to say there are approximately 68,000 troops left in Afghanistan.